VISION 2020'S GOALS NEED TO BE MORE SPECIFIC

The community improvement group Vision 2020 recently unveiled its strategic goals it would like to achieve in Cape Girardeau over the next 20 years. While the plan in its current form is overly broad, Vision 2020 members will have plenty of opportunity to use their creativity and dedication to the community to craft more specifics along the way.

Vision 2020 is the offspring of Vision 2000, which was founded in 1987. The original group, like its successor, consisted of city officials and civic leaders working to develop and implement ways to make the community a better place. During its run, Vision 2000 successfully pushed for a number of initiatives, including the Transportation Trust Fund which is improving the city's streets.

Although some of the objectives were unrealistic -- such as improving voter turnout to 75 percent (it was under 25 percent in the last election) -- at least you could tell whether or not Vision 2000 had met a goal.

One of the drawbacks of the Vision 2020 plan, however, is its platitudes and goals that will be impossible to objectively determine if they've been met 20 years from now.

The plan is broken down five categories: arts, culture and leisure; community services and enrichment; economic development; education; and transportation and infrastructure. There are a total of 13 goals within these areas.

Among these feel-good goals are "Create a unique sense of community pride where people like to live, work, learn play and do business" and "Provide a broad variety of educational programs and facilities to promote lifelong learning and make learning fun." That sounds nice, but how do you determine if there is "a unique sense of community pride" or if learning is lifelong and fun?

Many of the strategies for achieving these and other goals are equally broad, calling for surveys, the creation of more city advisory boards -- as if there aren't too many already -- and subjective measurements.

Some of the specific initiatives, such as renovating the Broadway and Esquire theaters, are laudable. But how do we go about doing them?

The overall concept of Vision 2020 is sound, but the goals need to more straightforward and include a blueprint on how they can realistically be achieved.